Very scary...

OK, I've been making the rounds of adoption blogs tonight and some of what I have been reading has me scared out of my mind. First off, there are many families who are in the midst of the process of adopting from Guatemala, with some very severe cases involving signatures not obtained. The adoptive mothers of some of these babies have been living in Antigua for almost a year now, fostering their babies. When Guatemala becomes a Hague country on Jan. 1, 2008, they will require all adoptions (even those in process) to meet Hague standards. Furthermore, they will not process adoptions to non-Hague member countries after Dec. 31, 2007. The United States is NOT YET a Hague member country. So the U.S. Department of State has issued a severe warning that when Guatemala becomes a Hague country on Jan. 1st, all adoption cases in process will not be grandfathered in and may not be able to be completed.

This is extremely scary for me, on two levels. First, I worry about all the people who are in process (in PGN, in family court, etc.) who are now facing the very real idea of losing this adoption. Second, I have not yet even yet begun the process and I am now feeling the very real threat of a second country closed to me for who knows how long. I can not adopt from China since I am not married, so after looking into the requirements for other countries, Guatemala looked like the best route for me to go.

Let's face it, there are not that many countries that a single woman can adopt from. I am very scared of this whole idea going up in smoke. I cannot even think about starting the process until I get back on my feet again and I don't know how long that is going to take.

I am very sad tonight, thinking about all the babies that have been referred and have loving families waiting for them in the U.S. I am very sad tonight, thinking about what this will all mean for me.